Bloomberg declared that Apple is ramping up to develop a code completion tool operated by AI. It resembles Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot.
According to a Bloomberg story, Apple intends to make new generative AI features available to third-party developers. The plan is to introduce it this year after expanding internal testing of the features for its Xcode programming platform. It has been stated that Apple has also considered using generative AI in consumer-facing products. It includes AI chatbot-like search functions for Spotlight, slideshows in Keynote, and automatic playlist generation in Apple Music.
Thanks to the search improvement, users can utilize ChatGPT, iOS, and macOS to make natural language requests for weather reports or access features hidden within apps.
Although other tech giants have been more visible in releasing AI research and products, Apple has released the following in the last few months
- an AI animator called Keyframer,
- a text-to-image editing AI model called MGIE
- an open-source machine learning framework called MLX
Like GitHub Copilot from Microsoft and CodeWhisperer from Amazon, Apple’s programming tool uses a big language model to predict and complete code strings and even produce code to test apps.
In November 2023, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella informed analysts that GitHub Copilot had one million paying customers. Since Copilot’s debut, GitHub has expanded its features, such as a chat tool that offers real-time assistance to programmers and highlights potential code problems. Apple is expected to make more announcements regarding its AI intentions during the annual developer conference, WWDC, later this year. Microsoft has stated that it will provide more information about Copilots and AI for developers at its Build 2024 event in May.
The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, has been more silent regarding generative AI than his colleagues at Google and Microsoft. He announced last month on an investor call that further productive AI features will be released this year. Bloomberg was informed by sources that executives showed the Apple board many of the AI technologies, including Xcode, in late last year.
